IS-3 Ammo Rack

I recently bought my IS-3, couple days from now. It's a great tank, though it's lacking the BL-9 which I don't have it yet.

I have some concerns with regards to this tank. I get a lot more ammo racks than I did in my IS. Can someone tell me if getting ammo racks in this tank common, or is it just that I'm not playing this tank how it's suppose to be?

Last game on Arctic Region, starting from the west side of the map, I pushed with bottom with two other tanks. Half way through pushing, an enemy T-44 flanks me, first damages my ammo even though I was angling it's shots. Lastly, it goes to my other side and finishes me off with an ammo rack. I had about 50% of health before I was ammo racked.

I don't recall getting ammo racked any more than in other tanks when I was driving my IS-3 (only recently elited it). I'd say bad luck more than anything at this point.

This site will show ammo rack locations. You'll need Google Chrome or maybe Firefox (IE a no go, I believe), and Windows 7. If you can't get in there, let me know and I'll screen cap a couple for you this evening when I get home.

I recently bought my IS-3, couple days from now. It's a great tank, though it's lacking the BL-9 which I don't have it yet.

I have some concerns with regards to this tank. I get a lot more ammo racks than I did in my IS. Can someone tell me if getting ammo racks in this tank common, or is it just that I'm not playing this tank how it's suppose to be?

Last game on Arctic Region, starting from the west side of the map, I pushed with bottom with two other tanks. Half way through pushing, an enemy T-44 flanks me, first damages my ammo even though I was angling it's shots. Lastly, it goes to my other side and finishes me off with an ammo rack. I had about 50% of health before I was ammo racked.

Also, where are the ammo rack located in the IS-3?

Thanks.

Sides, rear turret, behind the headlights. Yes, being ammo racked is quite common in the IS-3. Arty will sometimes hit your ammo rack from above or a good side hit. Good luck.

Then we get to the side armor… you see those hatches on the side, well if they get hit by anything that can penetrate the 90mm side armor ...your ammo rack will explode and the tank is either one-shoted or looses 50% of its hit points.Cons:
- Exploding ammo rack

In my experience the ammo rack locations are pretty much the same as on the 59. If something with a high penetration gun (like a 704) hits your side, in the front under the turret or the back/sides of your turret there is a good chance you will explode in one shot.

When I 1-shot a IS-3 with my first ever BL-10 shot in Beta, it was turned to its left due to panicking, and the shot hit somewhere around the right side below the turret, or perhaps the lower front right of the turret. Wherever it was, it went boom. The IS-3 gets racked more then any other tier 8 heavy, that's for sure.

I think it's just being unlucky, that said, since 7.0 redid armor models and replaced the more angled IS3 turret upgrade with the "pancake" turret, I've noticed enemies have had an easier time penning my turret head-on and doing collateral damage to my ammo-rack. Honestly the only thing that consistently gets busted on this tank are it's tracks, since they soak up a lot of damage. For this reason alone a repair kit is invaluable, but I do find that if anything is gonna break other than the tracks, it's the ammo-rack.

Overall I'd say it's a good reliable tank and it's only flaw is that it can't hide its glacis plate very well without compromising its frontal armor.

Seems like we are back to the old days where you get racked through the front of the turret a lot. The old top T-10 turret used to pretty much stop the ammo racking, but it was taken away and the old stock turret became our "top" one

Only been 1 shotted once by an IS-4 and he hit one of the blowout panels on the side of the hull (excluding a few 1 shot artillery hits). However, used to hit in the rack and then 2 shotted with the old stock turret.